Open Call: Individual Applications for Carpentries Instructor Training Seats

Open Call: Indi­vid­ual Appli­ca­tions for Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ing Seats 

Appli­ca­tions are now open for the remain­ing Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ing seats under the Build­ing dig­i­tal skills train­ing and les­son devel­op­ment capac­i­ty in the Nether­lands NES domain (DC4NES) project, fund­ed by TDCC-NES and led by 4TU.ResearchData. This is the sec­ond and final call of the project, fol­low­ing Call 1’s insti­tu­tion­al nom­i­na­tion round, which cov­ered 20 seats and led to train­ing in Utrecht in Octo­ber 2026. The Open Call offers the remain­ing 30 seats and, unlike Call 1, is open direct­ly to indi­vid­ual appli­cants.  

The call opens on 5 Sep­tem­ber 2026. Appli­ca­tions received by 30 Novem­ber 2026 will be con­sid­ered for train­ing in Feb­ru­ary 2027; the call then remains open until July 2027 for a sec­ond round, lead­ing to train­ing in Sep­tem­ber 2027 or an online ses­sion. Appli­cants indi­cate their pre­ferred train­ing moment direct­ly on the appli­ca­tion form. 

Becom­ing a cer­ti­fied Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor enables you to teach foun­da­tion­al cod­ing and data sci­ence work­shops at your insti­tu­tion and beyond. Train­ing is con­duct­ed in Eng­lish by Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ers, on loca­tion in the Nether­lands, with an online alter­na­tive avail­able for those unable to attend in per­son. Each seat is val­ued at approx­i­mate­ly EUR 900.  

Why apply for Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ing? 

Our recent train­ing needs sur­vey showed that local­ly embed­ded instruc­tors play a cen­tral role in sup­port­ing researchers’ dig­i­tal skills. The instruc­tors trained through this project will be core train­ers at their insti­tutes, sus­tain­ing and expand­ing train­ing capac­i­ty for years to come. While Call 1 was tar­get­ed at can­di­dates from the NES domain, this Open Call wel­comes appli­cants from any research domain (see “Who can apply” below for details). 

Beyond indi­vid­ual insti­tu­tions, the project is estab­lish­ing Local Train­ing Hubs: col­lab­o­ra­tive net­works of geo­graph­i­cal­ly close research-per­form­ing organ­i­sa­tions that pool cer­ti­fied instruc­tors, share organ­i­sa­tion­al respon­si­bil­i­ties, and offer work­shops on a rotat­ing basis. This mod­el is designed to make dig­i­tal skills train­ing scal­able and sus­tain­able, par­tic­u­lar­ly for insti­tu­tions where resources are lim­it­ed. New­ly trained instruc­tors will be con­nect­ed to these hubs, as well as to the exist­ing Research Soft­ware Train­ing NL (RST-NL) net­work, ensur­ing they can start teach­ing and remain active in the broad­er Car­pen­tries com­mu­ni­ty in the Nether­lands. 

How this call was devel­oped 

The eli­gi­bil­i­ty and selec­tion cri­te­ria for this call were devel­oped through a trans­par­ent, com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven process. In late 2025, a sur­vey dis­trib­uted via the Car­pen­tries Coor­di­na­tors Net­work NL reached 69 respon­dents, pre­dom­i­nant­ly data stew­ards, research soft­ware engi­neers, and research sup­port staff from insti­tu­tions across the Nether­lands, most­ly affil­i­at­ed with the NES domain. Opin­ions on seat allo­ca­tion were divid­ed, with the most com­mon pref­er­ences being either dis­tri­b­u­tion across a selec­tion of insti­tu­tions and/or an open call mod­el. These results informed the pro­jec­t’s two-call struc­ture: an insti­tu­tion­al nom­i­na­tion round (Call 1) fol­lowed by this Open Call. 

Draft cri­te­ria for the Open Call were reviewed and finalised by the Car­pen­tries Coor­di­na­tors Net­work NL, build­ing on lessons learned from Call 1. All cri­te­ria doc­u­ments are pub­licly avail­able. 

Who can apply 

The Open Call is open to any indi­vid­ual affil­i­at­ed with a Dutch research-per­form­ing organ­i­sa­tion, includ­ing insti­tu­tions already rep­re­sent­ed in Call 1 and insti­tu­tions that hold an exist­ing Car­pen­tries mem­ber­ship. Of the 50 seats across both calls, at least 50% are reserved for can­di­dates affil­i­at­ed with the NES domain; the remain­ing seats are open to can­di­dates from any research domain.  

How to apply 

Please read the doc­u­ments below care­ful­ly before apply­ing: 

• Eli­gi­bil­i­ty Cri­te­ria: Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ing Seats — Open Call  

• Selec­tion Cri­te­ria: Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ing Seats — Open Call  

• Selec­tion Process: Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ing Seats — Open Call  

• Method­ol­o­gy: Devel­op­ing Eli­gi­bil­i­ty and Selec­tion Cri­te­ria  

Once you have con­firmed you meet the eli­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria, sub­mit your appli­ca­tion via the Appli­ca­tion Form: Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ing Seats — Open Call. As part of the form, you’ll be asked to share a short moti­va­tion state­ment, indi­cate your research domain and con­tract type, and let us know your pre­ferred train­ing moment (Feb­ru­ary 2027, Sep­tem­ber 2027, or online). 

Ques­tions? 

For any ques­tions about the project or the appli­ca­tion process, please con­tact Iri­na Motoc (Project Coor­di­na­tor, 4TU.ResearchData) at i.motoc@tudelft.nl.